Rider scored 13 of his 30 points in the final period, when the
Atlanta Hawks held Boston to 11 points and rallied for a 94-84
victory, their sixth straight over the Celtics.

Maligned all season for missing practices and rumored to be on
the trading block, Rider scored four straight points, all from
the line, to give the Hawks the lead for good midway through the
fourth quarter.

Later, he threw in a scoop layup and drew the foul to give the
Hawks a 90-82 lead with less than 90 seconds to go and jumped on
the scorer's table.

"I just decided to turn up the pace a little bit and pick it
up," said Rider, who made 11-of-21 shots. "I started to be more
aggressive and kept the defense on their toes a little bit,
instead of playing passive."

"I thought he just played a great game. He didn't want to be
denied," said Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens, who has benched his
leading scorer several times this season. "The one thing about
J.R. is even though he misses a few shots, he's capable of
making the big shot. So we wanted to keep him out there."

Dikembe Mutombo had 17 points and 17 rebounds for the Hawks, who
have not lost to the Celtics since January 23, 1998.

Kenny Anderson scored 17 points for Boston, which collapsed in
the fourth quarter for the second straight night. On Friday,
the Celtics blew a 15-point lead in the final period and lost to
Milwaukee.

"We feel like we're good enough to beat these teams," said
Boston forward Antoine Walker, who scored 16 points. "For three
quarters, we've shown that we can beat them. But we haven't put
them away, and it's coming back to haunt us."

The Hawks trailed 73-68 entering the final period but Rider made
a pair of jumpers to tighten the game. After the second, he
pulled his jersey strap to show his heart.

"We understood that we weren't playing so well and they weren't
playing so well, but we were playing well enough to get the
game," Rider said. "When we got to within three, at that point
in time I knew it was a game."

A jumper by Adrian Griffin gave Boston its last lead at 79-78
with 7:04 to go, but Rider drew a pair of fouls on Paul Pierce
and made all four free throws for an 82-79 lead with 5:13 left.

Walker and Pierce scored around a jumper by Hawks rookie Jason
Terry to cut the deficit to one point. But Roshown McLeod and
Alan Henderson made jumpers before Rider's scoop shot sealed it
with 1:24 to play.

"A couple of times what we did was run the ball through
(Rider)," Wilkens said. "The offense is set so that any one of
those guys, whether it's Jason or Jimmy (Jackson) or Bimbo
(Coles) or Roshown, if they get the ball in the middle, they
know exactly what we want to do."

Henderson had 14 points and nine rebounds for the Hawks, who
shot 49 percent (34-of-69) from the field and held a 47-30 edge
on the glass.

Griffin scored 14 points for the Celtics, who shot 38.5 percent
(30-of-78). Boston was outrebounded 30-9 in the second half.

"When you get outrebounded 30-9, you're gonna blow a lead,"
Pitino said. "If you let this team dominate you on the glass,
you can't win. It's our own fault. We ran out of gas and we
got killed on the backboards."

Anderson scored 12 points and Walker nine as Boston grabbed a
49-42 halftime lead. A 3-pointer by Dana Barros opened a 73-59
advantage for the Celtics late in the third period.

The Hawks closed the quarter with nine consecutive points as
Mutombo made two free throws and Lorenzen Wright had a dunk and
two foul shots around a 3-pointer by Rider.

"We made a great run before the end of the third quarter," said
Mutombo. "It gave us a great lift and it gave us the momentum
to finish the game strong."